


Captured

by mrshomestuck



Category: Homestuck
Genre: (Maybe) Sadstuck, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - No Sburb Session, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Interspecies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-14
Updated: 2013-07-14
Packaged: 2017-12-20 03:50:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/882614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrshomestuck/pseuds/mrshomestuck
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Right when Karkat is finally considered a troll like all others on Alternia, a strange girl shows up out of no where that threatens that because her blood is the same. She is scared and confused, and many ask for Karkat's help since he would understand her situation the most.<br/>He is in awe over the poor thing and grows overprotective, which is bad for the research team. Karkat finds himself stuck between protecting the girl he loves or staying within his society.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Deal

“Did you hear about it?”

“Yeah. I heard they found it in the forest.”

“Wow! And it’s still alive?”

“They’re planning on doing some tests but first they want to know more about it.”

“I wonder how it even got here?”

Karkat sighs as he passes by his loud neighbors who always seem to know what the other one is talking about, while Karkat himself never knows about anything they’re talking about, for the most part. For once he knows exactly what the gossip is though. His friend Sollux gets front row seats to the kind of stuff in his occupation, so he told him about the strange occurrence immediately.

‘Really, an alien?!’ He specifically remembers how stunned he was. Later he came to the realization that they will probably kill it though, so he’s decided to maybe check it out in town later before he'd never get to see something like it again.

Karkat eventually walks in front of a huge building with dozens of people trying to get a peek inside. He can’t help but smirk to himself as he swipes a card against the door and all those around him look at him with a shocked expression. He can clearly hear tons of them yelling “why does a lowblood get access while we don’t?!”, sucks for them that he knows some important people.

He walks into the building and goes down the elevator, watching people’s glares pierce him like knives for the brief second that he looks at them. He groans from the movement of the elevator and practically runs off when he reaches the desired floor to get away from the shaky feeling of decending.

“Hey KK.” The tall mustard blood motions for him to come over and Karkat slowly does so. “See in there? That’s her. We’ve asked her a few questions but she’s answered only about half of them.” Karkat looks to see a pink-skinned, long haired, and strikingly awe-inducing creature. “She’s told us her name is Jade. Apparently she’s a scientist or something from wherever and somehow ended up here.”

Karkat stares at her. He’s completely frozen. He shakes his head violently when he notices how much he’s staring. “Hehe, dude, it’s fine. I was like that too when I first saw her. In a weird kind of way, she’s kind of pretty, right?”

The slightly-shorter troll clears his throat and looks at her again. “Yeah... In a weird kind of way.” Karkat continues to stare at her while speaking. “So her name’s ‘Jade’, huh? Is her blood jade too?”

“Oh, so that’s what I forgot to tell you! No wonder you aren’t going insane.”

“Huh?” Karkat looks at Sollux with confusion.

“Here.” Sollux hands Karkat a small vial filled with a red substance.

“What the hell is this?”

“A blood sample.”

It takes him a while, but suddenly it’s clear to him. “Shit...”

“Yeah, right? It was hard enough for Feferi to convince her people that you aren’t a disease-ridden monster, but if this gets out to the public you might get a shit storm. I mean... KK?” Sollux trails off noticing how Karkat seemed to have stopped listening beyond there.

“Holy shit...” Karkat ignores what Sollux is saying completely and bangs on the glass.

“Hey! What the hell are you doing?! That glass will scratch easily!”

“I need to...” He bangs on the glass again. “I need to talk to her.”

“Okay, okay! Don’t blame me if you get some incurable virus.” Sollux types on a keypad next to him, opening the door. Karkat rushes in and stares at the girl in front of him. Sollux closes the door behind him as quickly as possible, unwilling to take the same chances as Karkat.

“You...” Karkat mumbles. She continues to avoid eye-contact as he speaks.

“What now? Going to dissect me?” She says in an annoyed tone.

“You’re just like me...” Karkat says, falling to his knees in front of her. “Holy shit...” Jade looks up at him with confusion written all over her face. Karkat looks back, tears rolling down his cheeks. “I thought I was alone...” He quickly embraces her, pulling her tightly against him. “I can’t believe it...”

Jade’s face is completely covered in confusion. She looks towards the window on the wall next to her and eyes the tall troll with a confused expression. Sollux simply stares at Karkat with surprise while now and then looking away to take notes on how he’s handling physical contact with Jade.

Jade pushes him away when she realizes what's happening, kind of. Karkat looks at her while tears are running down his face and she backs away a bit. “What are you doing?! What is this?! Why are you acting like you know me?”

“It’s true, right?” Karkat says after wiping the tears off on his sleeve as he ignores all of her questions.

“What?” Jade eyes Karkat up and down.

“It’s true that your blood is red, right?”

Jade looks him up and down again in attempt to not stare at his desperate expression. “...Yeah. What other color would it be?” Karkat looks at her and stares into her bright green eyes. He stands up again and walks towards her. She appears to panic and back away. “D-don’t touch me.” He backs her into the corner and Jade begins panicking. “DON’T TOUCH ME!”

Suddenly a loud ding sounds in the room and Sollux’s voice echoes through the room. “KK, stay away from her. We need her to be as calm as possible until further notice. I’m going to make you get out of there if you don’t back away.”

Karkat stares at the glass across the room and slowly begins to back up from Jade. She looks at him with fury and obvious confusion. He flashes a keycard against the door and walks out of the room, leaving her to sit in confusion all by herself. “God dammit KK. I knew you were going to freak out but I didn’t expect you to try to break the fucking window and practically assault her.”

The two both stare into the room and watch her walk towards the glass, staring in at both of them. She pulls out a marker and crouches down to get a whiteboard that Sollux provided for her to communicate without having to hear the loud sounds of the speakers. She writes in bright green letters, ‘Who is he?’

Sollux hands Karkat a whiteboard and a marker to communicate in return. He writes frantically. ‘I’m Karkat’.

‘What was that?’

‘I’m sorry, I was excited.’

‘What for?’

‘You’re like me.’

‘What does that mean?’

Karkat takes a while to write a reply and almost looks pained to write it. ‘I’m an outcast, a freak.’

Jade makes a confused expression. ‘You seem like the rest of them.’

‘Red blood isn’t normal here.’

‘No?’

‘No.’

Jade looks at Karkat and sets the whiteboard down. She goes back to the middle of the floor where she was sitting before, except now she’s watching Karkat with curiosity written all over her face instead of staring at the floor or wall.

“Looks like she likes you.” Sollux eventually speaks up with a smile.

Karkat looks at Sollux briefly and grunts, refusing to reply to his comment. He simply begins speaking. “She looked really scared. I regret it a little.”

“KK.”

“Yeah?”

“I think you should come see her again. She reacts very well to you compared to me and the others.”

“What do you mean by that? That was well?”

“She communicates with you. I think it would benefit us all if you visited her a lot.”

Karkat looks at her in silence for a good thirty seconds before he finally replies. “Alright. You’ve got a deal. As long as I get a nice room and food I’m all up for it.”

“Alright, we have a deal then.”


	2. Push and Pull

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karkat is pushed to get to know Jade better and bond with her for the experiment.

Karkat yawns and stretches, only to stare at the door across the room from him. The room for observing her is right outside of his room. He feels his face turn red as he wonders if she’s thinking the same thing and staring at that door right now. He quickly shakes his head. She’s an alien, and probably thinks he’s disgusting. Hell, he thinks he’s disgusting too. He is getting excited about a female of another species, another planet, maybe even another universe.

He eventually gets out of bed and uses the shower and bathroom provided to him immediately. He comes out of the bathroom to be presented with a meal that seems to have appeared out of thin air. He opens the door and watches as a Zahhak-made robot walks down the hallway. Karkat gets back into his room and prepares to eat, until Sollux barges into his room.

“You have to eat with her.”

“What?”

“You have to eat with her. It’s a method of bonding.” Karkat glares at him and walks out into the hallway with his tray of food while grumbling angrily under his breath. Sollux shoo’s him near the door and opens it. “Go on, she’s waiting.”

Karkat takes a moment to look inside and replies. “Like fucking hell. She’s asleep.” Karkat barks.

“Just go.” Sollux smacks the back of Karkat’s head.

Karkat grunts as he walks in the room and the door slams behind him immediately. Jade is still asleep, so he doesn’t understand why he was forced in there. Karkat approaches the glass as Sollux taps on it to get his attention. He holds up the whiteboard reading ‘Wake her up and offer her some of your food. She doesn’t like bugs no matter how high-grade they are, so offer her some bread.’

Karkat sighs loudly in reply and observes Jade using the make-shift bed they prepared for her of blankets and pillows. He squirms a bit as he puts a hand on her shoulder, shaking her gently. “Hey, wake up.”

He watches as she slowly opens her bright green eyes and looks at him with a tired expression. “Ah... Five more minutes...”

“No. Breakfast.”

“Ahhh...” Jade groans in an annoyed tone.

“Breakfast.”

“No...” Karkat shakes her a bit and she sits up. “Fine, fine... I hope you made something good, John... making me get up like this...” Karkat looks at her with a confused expression. She looks back at him with the same confused expression suddenly she squeals and backs away a bit. “Shit! I forgot I was here!”

Karkat sighs and hands her a piece of bread. “Eat it.”

Jade eyes him with distrust. “Why are you in here?”

“He made me.” Karkat points at Sollux from behind the glass.

“...Thanks for the food.” Jade says as she takes a bite of the bread. She tries to not squirm from the taste but she can’t help it.

“Ah, is it not good?!” Karkat says with a worried expression. “I wouldn’t like eating just that shit either.”

“No no, this is the best food I’ve had on this stupid bug-eating planet!” Jade says loudly.

Karkat stares at her and mumbles. “But... It’s the most boring part of the meal. I’m pretty sure it’s only there just in case you choke on something.” Jade looks at him with an annoyed expression and he hands her the rest of the bread that he was given. “Are you sure you don’t want some of-”

“I’m positive!”

“You didn’t even let me finish.”

“It’s all the same. Bugs, bugs, and more gross bugs. I appreciate other cultures, but that’s completely disgusting.”

Karkat sighs and mumbles. “Well, I guess their happy, you like such a cheap type of food. Makes it one hundred times easier.”

Jade ignores him and continues to eat the bread presented to her. Karkat sits down a few meters from her and stabs the food in front of him. He begins to eat as well and hears sounds of disgust coming from next to him. “Ew! How can you eat that?”

“Hey, this food is fucking expensive. Well, at least much better than anything I can buy.”

“Are you poor?”

He takes a while to reply after shooting her a glare. “...In a way.” Karkat eyes her and she continues to eat the bread while observing him eat next to her.

Karkat eventually finishes his food and sits up while holding the tray. Jade grabs onto the hem of his sweater before he can leave. She mumbles, “What’s your name?”

He looks at her and speaks in a calm tone. “Karkat. Karkat Vantas.” Jade watches him with interest as he leaves the room.

Sollux laughs at him when the door shuts behind him. “Holy shit dude. I never thought I’d see the day where a chick digs you, but it makes sense if she’s a fucking alien.” Karkat glares at Sollux and attempts to punch him, only to be reminded that he’ll get hauled out of there if he harms Sollux, Jade, or the equipment.

Karkat hands his tray off to one of the blue blood robots before attempting to go back in his room, to which Sollux grabs his collar and pulls him back to the window. “Fuck! What are you doing with me?!”

“Now, now. I’ve got somewhere to be, so I want you to look after her while I’m gone. You don’t have to go inside or anything, I just need someone to watch her. Can you handle that?” Sollux laughs and Karkat rolls his eyes.

“Yeah, whatever. Not like I have anything better to do.”

“Also, if you decide to go in there, try to entertain her somehow. If she has a little fun she might open up to us.” Sollux leaves before Karkat can say anything. Karkat looks in the window at Jade and sighs a bit. He opens the door and walks in to sit next to her as he gets bored of just staring at her.

“Where’d he go?” Jade asks Karkat.

“He left.”

“Why?”

“Probably going on a stupid fucking date or something, I don’t know.” Karkat looks at Jade. “All I know is that I’m supposed to make sure you’re okay.”

Karkat continues to look at her and she begins feeling rather uncomfortable. “What’s your name?” He says to break the silence.

Jade looks at him with a frown. “You already know my name. He told you.”

“Well I want to hear it from you.”

“...Jade Harley.”

“Ah, Harley. I like that name. It sounds long enough to be normal.” Jade looks at him with confusion and he laughs a bit. “Sorry, I mean, trolls usually have names of 6 letters. ‘Jade’ sounds pretty fucking weird considering how short it is, if it’s spelled the same as it is here at least.”

Jade looks away and grunts. “Karkat is a weird name too.”

“Yeah, if you say so.” The two stay silent for a few minutes after him ending the conversation like so.

Suddenly Jade speaks up, “Why are you here?”

“What do you mean? I already told you, I’m supposed to make sure that you’re okay.” Karkat looks at her with confusion.

“I mean, why are you in here? Are you trying to get information out of me?”

“Uh, no. I don’t think so at least. I’m personally here for two reasons. One: I get a free place to stay, and two: I get to talk to someone mildly interesting.” Karkat eyes her. “I mean, it’s obvious I’d be interested in you. I’ve never met someone with the same color blood as me. And that doesn’t mean anything to you either, it’s kind of refreshing.”

Jade looks at him with a rather interested expression. “You’ve never met someone with red blood?”

“Well, there’s maroon blood, but they’re completely different. Despite how I have special privileges because of who I know and who protects me, it doesn’t stop anyone from trying to kill me because of my blood.”

“...Why would they do that? Aren’t you of the same kind?”

Karkat laughs at her despite the dark subject. “Well yeah I guess. But being a mutant will make a lot of people give you a lot of shit. Do your people not have similar issues?”

“Well... There are similar things, but most people wouldn’t go as far as to kill someone else for something like that. I mean... there are times now and then that those things happen, but not all the time.”

He looks at her with a calm expression. “Must be nice. Yet I bet everyone you know is weak, huh?” Karkat attempts to make fun of her.

“...In a way. More like cowards. Every one of my people are like that. Even me. We try to act strong by hiding behind technology and strategy, but the truth is, we’re all weak cowards who are scared of death.” Jade shocks him by giving him a serious answer and he can’t help but feel a little bad about it.

The two both sit in silence after she says that and Karkat looks away. “Well... Sometimes being fearless is a bad thing. It’s pretty common around here. Of course, most cowards are people who would die if they were anything else.”

Jade looks at him and nods, “So, in a way, everyone I know is weak.”

“Yeah. Most of the people I know are the opposite. Or, act the opposite. They rush in and get themselves practically killed.” Jade notices a bit of sadness in Karkat’s voice as he speaks.

“I, um...” Jade hesitates but eventually puts her hand on his shoulder in attempt to reassure him. “I’m sorry.”

Karkat looks at her with a surprised expression and opens his mouth to reply, yet nothing comes out. He simply stares at her for a while. Then it hits him like a tidal wave. Tears come burning down his cheeks like acid being poured on him. Jade watches in awe as the troll’s calm expression spirals into nothing but despair and agony.

Jade simply offers her shoulder, and Karkat immediately takes it. He puts his arms around her, squeezing her tight, as he sobs. He begins whispering terrible things, “It’s all my fault, I couldn’t stop it.” “I’m so weak.” “I could’ve done something if I tried.”

Jade pats his back gently and tries to keep calm while she listens to him mumble between each break for tears. She makes the biggest attempt to not begin to weep herself. It’s very hard for her to imagine someone so miserable.

Suddenly the two are broken apart when a loud speaker sounds and a mocking voice echoes into the room, “Woah. We havin’ a love fest here? KK, get your ass out here. I need to talk to you.” Karkat wipes his eyes and pats Jade on the head appreciatively before leaving the room. Jade simply watches him make his way out like usual.

Karkat is greeted with Sollux breathing down his neck. “What the hell went on while I was gone?”

“Shit, shit, I didn’t do anything! I just... Got a little emotional, okay?” Karkat looks at Sollux nervously and pushes him away gently.

“You better not have. If she is any different physically from before you were in there today, I’m going to rip your throat right out. Got it?”

“I’ve got it, I’ve got it!!!” Karkat glances over in Jade’s direction and Sollux immediately pushes Karkat.

“You fucker. Do you have any idea how important this experiment is? You’re here to get her to open up to our kind. I don’t want you having a fucking romantic fling with her, alright? If I find that she’s magically fucking carrying around a little disgusting troll-alien grub one day you are never gonna set foot in here again.”

“Shit, all I did was talk to her! At least she fucking listens to me unlike some unworthy sack of shit friend.” Karkat storms into his room before Sollux can reply.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah... sorry about how unfocused the writing is so far. I'll try my best to make it better in the later chapters!!!  
> Thank you for reading!


	3. Loss of Sleep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karkat cannot sleep and finds himself sneaking out when he shouldn't be. He discovers a few things that do the opposite of helping him sleep.

Karkat can’t sleep even a wink. He just keeps thinking about how angry Sollux was. Karkat begins questioning why he’s even in this place any longer, he knows better than to get attached, he’s made too many mistakes doing that. He isn’t as infatuated in her as he makes it seem, he’s just very thankful. Even if she suspects him of being another dirty scientist who wants to put her on a metal slab for testing, she listens to him.

He might admit a bit though... For one, she sure does make his heart flutter. Augh, he want’s to bang his head against the wall for thinking anything like that. She’s just different compared to everyone he knows. He can’t stand it, he has to just look at her for a while...

Karkat slips out of his room as quietly as possible and attempts to not be seen. He hears something, so he decides to approach it. While Karkat’s looking through the window, he can see a bright light shining in the room and Sollux inside. He searches for Jade, yet can’t see her from his angle.

For a better view, Karkat attempts to look in fully when Sollux’s back is turned. He sees her on the floor, but what initially looked like she was asleep proved to be incorrect when Karkat tried to move to the side a bit to see better. She’s hooked up to some machine... Karkat grinds his teeth nervously as he continues to observe. Her breathing appears abnormal, and she looks very sick from Karkat’s point of view.

Sollux looks behind him, and sees Karkat immediately before he has the chance to duck out of sight. He calmly walks out of the room and approaches Karkat. “Well, look who’s spying.”

“Fuck, I wasn’t...”

“Dude, it’s fine. I’m not trying to keep this a secret or anything.”

Karkat stands straight up and glances at Jade on the floor in the room in front of them. “What’s wrong with her?” He asks with worry in his voice.

“Ah, ever since we’ve moved her in here she... panics now and then. No biggie. I guess I forgot to tell you, but we’re trying to see how being close to someone will affect that. It doesn’t seem like much has changed, but the average span of her fits might decrease by a bit, which is what we’re hoping.”

“So... She’s okay?”

“Yeah, I mean, you’d be panicking if you were suddenly teleported to a different planet and were captured by the creatures there, right?”

Karkat glances at the floor under his feet and mumbles, “...Yeah.”

Sollux pats Karkat’s back and begins walking down the hallway out of Karkat’s sight. “I’m going to bed. Don’t spend too long looking at her like that, it might make your personal reactions to her change. We don’t want to confuse her. Also, I set up cameras in there, just for you. I see anything suspicious when I go over the tapes and I’ll-”

“Kill me, I know.”

“Good.” Sollux continues walking and Karkat watches until he can’t see him anymore.

Karkat looks through the glass at her and sighs uneasily. He didn’t really think about what being there would do to her. He just expected she’d be a little cold to them, which she is. Yet he hadn’t considered her having anything like panic attacks.

“Augh, need to sleep.” Karkat groans to himself as he walks back to his room. He doesn’t want to deal with any more pity on the poor thing. Plus, if Sollux ever found out about it, Karkat would be dead.

Karkat finds himself staring at the ceiling of the room he was given once again. He turns only to find a wall of the exact same boring color to stare at. He can’t sleep at all, no matter how hard he tries. He begins whispering to himself as if writing in an invisible diary. None of it makes sense to him, but it begins to calm him down and he can eventually at least get comfortable in his bed.

For a moment he closes his eyes, then again, and again, until he finds himself drifting asleep. He falls into his sick mind, all thinking about how tormented Jade must feel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys uwu. This is the end of all of the pre-written chapters I have, so now this story is up to date on here along with me. Now that it's up to date, it will take me a while to update it and I might drop it if I dislike the story enough...  
> Please understand that if I do drop it, it's due to loss of interest. But for now, I rather like this story, and I plan on continuing it!  
> Thank you for reading this chapter!


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